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Mercy is like the mystery of forgiveness.  By definition, mercy and forgiveness are unearned, undeserved, not owed.  If is isn’t all those three, it won’t be experienced as mercy…..  You don’t know mercy until you’ve really needed it.  As Thomas Merton once said – and I’ve quoted it often – “Mercy within mercy within mercy. “  It’s as if we collapse into deeper nets of acceptance, deeper nets of being enclosed and finally find we are in a net we can’t fall out of.  We are captured by grace.

                                                                Richard Rohr, Jesus’ Plan for a New World, p.136

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blessed are the merciful

happy are the merciful

for they shall receive mercy

what does mercy look like?

for some reason I have never thought much about that before

I’ve thought about forgiveness

but mercy?

can mercy live by itself

or is it always part of forgiveness?

can one have mercy toward another

but not forgive them?

or better yet, is forgiveness without mercy

really forgiveness at all?

and why is it we have so much trouble here?

start talking mercy and forgiveness with almost any Christian

and I will guarantee you that very quickly the conversation will turn to accountability

the “mercy” and the “forgiveness” will come with expectations

and will, in all too many cases turn quickly to “judgment” of some sort

we are like the ungrateful servant (Matthew 18) who radically forgiven his debt

the recipient of amazing mercy, went out and mercilessly assailed on who was in his debt

why we do this is complex, I believe

our own fear that we are not really and truly, fully, forgiven

our own mistrust of grace

our pride, our insistence that we have somehow earned what can only be received freely

or need for power or others?

why do I do it, for I do, at times, do this?

why do you?

when we move to this place

sometimes forgiveness and mercy disappear all together

sometimes we insist forgiveness is present

but there is no mercy

friends

if there is no mercy

there is no forgiveness

I can hear the torment now

yes, but

yes, God loves us, but we can’t just…..

ignore the “sin”

ignore the “brokenness”

what do we think unconditional love is for?

our entertainment

do we honestly believe that by giving unconditional love to others

but accepting and forgiving

and showing mercy

we leave them “as they were”?

could we, once we really “got” God’s love

could we remain the way we were?

could we still destroy others?

destroy ourselves?

Ah this is a mystery

this thing called mercy

this thing called forgiveness

I struggle to accept it (from God and others)

I struggle to offer it to myself

I struggle to offer it to others

But I believe

abundant mercy

not grudging forgiveness

is at the heart of God’s movement toward me

and is meant to be at the heart

of my movement towards all around me

Lord

Have mercy!